Sometimes, life is like that tin of crayons on the teachers desk. There are so many colours, so many shades, and some are sparkly or striped or two colours at once and some are everything at the same time so your brain hurts just looking at them, and they're all crammed inside a small container, rubbing against each other and losing bits and changing shape, becoming smaller and taller and faded and warped, until they disappear.
Briony thought she understood life.
"I match my socks up every night before bed," she told Cara as they sat on the comfortable wooden bench and ate their sandwiches. "And I make sure to eat five fruit and three vegetables a day-"
"It's the other way round," Cara interrupted in a nonchalant way.
"What is?" Briony asked sharply, lowering her sandwich.
Cara swallowed and took a minute studying the contents between her bread. "What you said," she replied finally, "It's five vegetables a day not fruit, and three fruit instead of vegetables."
"No it isn't. And I made mum buy me one of those electric toothbrushes, because they're better, obviously, for cleaning your teeth, and I always watch the five-thirty news. Always. Every single night."
"Sliced chicken and mustard," Cara said, gazing at her sandwich with unfocused eyes, as if she was under a spell. "Why does she think I like that?"
Cara. Briony chewed her egg, mayo and lettuce sandwich slowly, watching Cara with a slight wrinkle of her nose. What good is Cara? What does she know about food? Her mum can't even make her a good lunch!
"So, anyway, I followed that girl home the other day," she said and waited.
Cara took another bite of her sandwich absentmindedly, chewed and then turned to Briony, "Huh?"
"Yep-"
"Wait, followed her home?"
Briony grinned, almost throwing out her chest in pride, "I did."
Cara's eyes grew wide as she stared at Briony, biting into her sandwich and seeming to forget that she didn't like it.
"And she invited me inside."
"Why?"
"I told her I had to pee."
"Oh. Did you?"
"No."
Cara chewed some more. Briony felt as if she were losing her captivated audience. She said: "Her house smells like powdered soup in every room and all her carpet is that white fluffy kind that always looks clean and she had this massive- what's so funny?"
"You said 'powdered soup'," Cara said, grinning.
Briony let out air from her nose like an angry tortoise, "Soup? I meant soap. Anyway, and th-"
"Oh, soap."
"And there was a painting of a cat in a top hat, a real top hat, that was just hanging like twice the size of me in the hallway, I mean, how did they get it in?"
Cara said: "I bet they had to widen their front door," and wiped her fingers on the white and blue school skirt.
Briony snorted like a tortoise with a cold and said: "I bet they did."
Cara snorted too, but didn't sound like a sick tortoise because she had a dainty nose, and crossed her legs the other way. She only snorted when Briony did to see if she would notice and stop doing it. She never did. "What happened after the toilet?"
"Who?" Briony said loudly.
"Did you say goodbye?"
"To the girl? Of course! I used her toilet Cara!"
"What sort of toilet rolls did she have?"
"Dolphin patterned," Briony reported with an air of importance. She was sure moving her head in an arrogant manner, Cara observed.
"Well."
"I know."
"Hey, lunch muffins, what's crackin?"
Briony looked up to see Jarrad grinning down at them.
"I had a muffin once," Cara clarified, "and it was more like a deformed cupcake, really, so you can stop calling us that."
"It didn't have frosting so it's a muffin," Jarrad kicked up his skateboard with ease and grabbed the end, "Whatcha talking about?"
"Actu-" Cara started, looking a little disgruntled.
"That new girl's house," Briony cut over Clara excitedly, eager to share her daring news. "It was marvelously dangerous of me."
Jarrad raised his eyebrows, "What was dangerous?"
"She went inside."
Briony nodded enthusiastically.
"You broke in?" Jarrad asked in disbelief, "That's wac-"
"No," she rolled her eyes, "I used the toilet."
Clara said knowingly: "Dolphin toilet paper," and Jarrad's disbelief turned into admiration.
"Wack!" he said.
Briony smiled. "Blue dolphin toilet paper."
"Yeah?" said Jarrad, looking rapt.
"Wow!" breathed Cara.
"Isn't it?" said Briony, and they all lapsed into a sort of stunned silence, smiling vaguely and staring off at nothing.
"Say," Jarrad said after a while, glancing at Briony, "You wouldn't wanna come down to the servo with me," he hesitated and then added, "With me?" as if he had a memory problem.
Briony tried to look gracious and uninterested. "Oh, yeah ok, why not?" But her heart was thumping wildly. Jarrad! Asking her to the servo! She stood up carefully and waved goodbye to Clara much like the Queen waves to the public.
Cara watched them go; Jarrad tall with dark hair and Briony short with fair hair. She didn't understand life. She didn't watch the news or eat five vegetables and when she wasn't in school she wore odd socks, mainly because she couldn't be bothered doing the washing. But at that moment she thought she understood about boys and what it took to get their attention.
Patterned toilet paper.
~
